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Former Thacher Associate Who Admitted to Insider Trading Disbarred
New York Law Journal
April 30, 2009
A former associate of now-defunct Thacher Proffitt & Wood who admitted to netting up to $800,000 from an insider trading scam has been disbarred.
Between 2001 and 2005, Amir Rosenthal, who joined Thacher Proffitt in 2004, profited from nonpublic information supplied to him by his father, an employee of Taro Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd.
Thacher Proffitt suspended Rosenthal in April 2006 and fired him two months later. The following year, Rosenthal pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay a $75,000 fine.
In a unanimous decision, an Appellate Division, 1st Department, panel refused Rosenthal's request to resign in lieu of disbarment. The panel noted that conviction of a federal felony triggers automatic disbarment when an offense is identical to or essentially similar to a felony under New York Penal Law.
"Here, respondent's admitted conduct corresponds to the New York insider trading statute General Business Law §352-c(5) and (6) and, therefore, automatic disbarment is proper," the court wrote.
Justices Peter Tom, Richard T. Andrias, David Friedman, James M. Catterson and Rolando T. Acosta sat on the panel in Matter of Amir Rosenthal, M-4715.
